The Ninth & Tenth Commandments

Small Catechism Review

The Ninth & Tenth Commandments

The Eighth Commandment taught us how not to use our tongues for any false or harmful purpose, and how to use our tongues to defend and build up our neighbor. The first eight commandments all taught us not to misuse our hands or our tongues, but to use them for the purposes God commands.

Now we come to the final two commandments, the Ninth and the Tenth, both of which forbid coveting, that is, setting our hearts, setting our desires on things God has given to others, but not to us. It’s these two commandments that deal only with the heart that show us clearly that the heart is also involved in the first eight commandments.

Now, you probably know that the Reformed are the ones who renumbered the commandments from their traditional Western numbering. They combine the Ninth and Tenth Commandments into a single commandment. Even we Lutherans often treat them together, as we’re doing this evening. They’re very similar; they both forbid sinful desires of the heart. Some have suggested that the Ninth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house,” deals with inanimate objects, while the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, manservant, maidservant, animals, or anything that is his,” deals with people or living things. That’s the impression we get from Luther’s respective explanations. But the “anything that is his” at the end of the Tenth Commandment kind of points away from that distinction, doesn’t it?

It’s the “anything that is his” that has led some to conclude that the focus of the Ninth Commandment is on tangible things or sinful desires for actual things, while the Tenth Commandment focuses on sinful desires in general, the inborn discontentment that lives in all of us, the desire for something other than what God has given us, even if we can’t put a name to it. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? That general discontentment with life then zeroes in on something—our neighbor’s house, our neighbor’s car, our neighbor’s wealth or property, our neighbor’s spouse or friends, our neighbor’s life—and then our desires settle on that thing, leaving us bitter, leaving us unhappy, leaving us disgruntled. And sometimes that unhappiness and discontentment leads us to do whatever we can to get what our neighbor has, including scheming, including deception, including manipulations of the legal system, including voting your neighbor’s rights or property away from him, so that what you did was perfectly legal, and yet in the eyes of God, your coveting and lack of love for your neighbor led you into a sin just as damning as murder.

Coveting worms its way down into every other commandment. Why do you disparage your neighbor with your tongue? Because you covet something he has, his popularity, or his acceptance, or because you covet a higher social position than you have, so you try to build yourself up by tearing him down. Why do you steal? Because you set your desires on something your neighbor possesses. Why do you commit adultery? Because you lust after someone God hasn’t given you as your spouse. (By the way, the word “lust” and the word “covet” are exactly the same word in the Greek.) Why do you murder? Again, because you covet your neighbor’s possessions or popularity or acceptance, as Cain coveted Abel’s acceptance by God. Why does a woman commit the sin of murder by abortion? Because she covets the easier or “more fulfilling” life that baby would take away from her. Why do you dishonor your father or your mother? Because you covet something they tell you you can’t have, or because you covet their authority, which was given to them, not to you. Why do you fail to sanctify the Sabbath Day? Because you covet all the other things you could have if you don’t sacrifice the time to hear and learn God’s Word. Why do you misuse God’s name? Because you covet the popularity false teaching can bring, or because you covet the knowledge only witchcraft can provide, or because you covet God’s power to curse His enemies, or because you covet the security you could have by swearing falsely. Why do you have other gods? Because you covet the very supremacy that belongs to God alone. You covet the ability to believe as you want and to do as you want. You covet being like God, as Eve did in the Garden of Eden.

Coveting leads to every other sin, because coveting is part of what makes up original sin, the corruption of our very nature, a corruption that includes both a lack of something and the presence of something—a lack of true fear of God, love for God, and trust in God, and the presence of something which we call “concupiscence,” which is just a fancy word for sinful desires or “coveting.” And so original sin, which includes coveting, is the wellspring of all actual sins.

So. Where have you failed to keep the Ninth and Tenth Commandments? Where have you coveted? Where have your desires gone astray, to long for something that someone else has, to set your heart on something you’re not supposed to have? Where has discontentment displaced contentment? Where has it led to even more sins against your neighbor in your quest to get what you were never supposed to have? And where has it led to the greatest sins of all, of seeking to rob God of the glory and honor that belong to Him, because you weren’t content with Him?

It’s helpful to put a name on those sinful desires and to recognize them as the ugly sins against the Ninth and Tenth Commandments that they are. Because in recognizing the sin, you can hear God’s call to repent and apply it to yourself. In recognizing the sin, you can now begin to appreciate God’s love for coveters like you and me in sending His Son to live a life of contentment in His Father’s care, although He had far fewer possessions and earthly things than you or I have. In recognizing the sin of coveting that always stirs in your heart, you can look away from your heart to the Savior of sinners, to Christ Jesus, whose death on the cross paid even for the ugliness of your heart and for your darkest desires, and who cleanses you of covetousness through faith. You have crucified the flesh with its lusts, as Paul wrote to the Galatians in Sunday’s Epistle. And you have been raised to new life with Christ.

So learn to recognize your discontentment and your errant desires, and then, having put on the New Man, renew the struggle each day, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to deny those desires and to set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your heart on His will. Set your longings on His coming at the end of the age. Learn to desire the things God desires, and pray for the gift of contentment. Pray with the Psalmist: Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire nothing, if I have You. My flesh and my heart may fail; but You, O God, are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Amen.